#LotusEsprit

The world’s largest collection of James Bond cars is up for sale for a cool $33.25 million.

Royal Mail has released its “British Auto Legends” special stamps, celebrating the best in British automaking.

As if a standard Lotus Esprit crossing the auction block isn’t rare enough, this one is a definite one-of-a-kind after starring in the James Bond 007 flick The Spy Who Loved Me.

After rumors of the Esprit’s death were debunked, Lotus has charged ahead and according to inside sources, the brand’s newest sports car is all but ready to be built.

Contrary to what we reported on AutoGuide earlier today, Lotus has informed us that the cancellation of Esprit production is simply a rumor. 

It’s the time of year when automakers go on a wonderful vacation to Paris and show off the latest and greatest vehicles. The Paris Motor show is here, and there are quite a few vehicles that are slated to be revealed this year.

Clearly,  Lotus wants to rid itself of anything that has to do with former-CEO Dany Bahar. The British automaker is now selling Bahar’s custom 2002 Esprit V8.

Every year an automaker is chosen to be celebrated at the Goodwood Festival of Speed with an artistic installation directly in front of the historic Goodwood house in West Sussex, England, and a host of classic and shiny new cars on display. For 2012 it will be the iconic English brand Lotus.

Lotus has plans to release their new next-generation Esprit at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show and more details were recently released on their next sports car. The base model Esprit will be a hybrid, sporting a 100-hp electric motor and a naturally aspirated V8 engine.

After decades of borrowing powertrains from Ford, Renault, Toyota and other OEMs, Lotus has revealed some of the first pictures of a working engine, designed and built in-house.

Lotus recently announced its intention to build an in-house V8 engine for its upcoming line of exotic sports cars. Making as much as 570-hp from a displacement of just 4.8-liters the sophisticated powerplant may be joined by an equally high-tech automatic transmission.

The new Esprit will make it to market, but not as early as Lotus had hoped. Speaking at the launch of the new Evora S model in San Jose, Lotus Cars USA PR boss Kevin Smith confirmed that due to a decision by Lotus to produce its own engine for the car, it won’t make it to market until late 2013 or even early 2014.

Lotus may build their next generation Esprit sports car outside of the United Kingdom after its request for a $50 million loan to build a new factory was rejected by an investment arm of the British government.

Over in the U.K., Lotus is looking at the British government to help out in the same capacity. Lotus is saying, that unless the government backs them up, they will have to resort to looking at producing vehicles outside of the United Kingdom.